# mathematicians attempts at proving Euclid postulate

Is there a list of all the people who attempted to prove the parallel postulate (also known as the fifth postulate or the Euclid axiom) in Euclidean geometry? Wikipedia has a page on the subject but the list given there is far too short.

Here is what I have collected so far, any addition is welcome.

Archimedes (~ -287- -212)
Posidonios (~-135 ~-51)
Geminus (~-10 ~60)
Claude Ptoleme (~90 ~168)
Proclus (412 485)
Simplicius (~490 ~560)
Thabit ibn Qurra (826 901)
Al-Abbās ibn Said al-Jawharī (~800 ~860)
Abu'l Abbas al-Fadl ibn Hatim Al-Nayrizi (~865 ~922)
Ibn al-Haytham (965 1039)
Avicenna (980-1037)
Omar Khayyam (1048-1131)
Erazmus Ciołek Witelo (~1230-~1300)
Rabbi Levi ben Gershom (1288-1344)
Pietro Antonio Cataldi (1548-1626)
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608-1679)
John Wallis (1616-1703)
Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri (1667-1733)
Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777)
Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813)
Farkas Bolyai (1775-1856)
Ferdinand Carl Schweikart (1780-1859)
Friedrich Ludwig Wachter (1792-1818)
Viktor Yakovlevich Bunyakovsky (1804-1889)


EDIT: added Farkas Bolyai, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, as pointed out in the comments.

• What is your question? – Alexandre Eremenko May 30 '18 at 15:57
• @eremenko Is there a list of all the people who attempted to prove the parallel postulate (also known as the fifth postulate or the Euclid axiom) in Euclidean geometry? An answer would provide a reference to such a list or the list itself. – coudy May 30 '18 at 16:55
• What do you mean exactly by “prove the parallel postulate in Euclidean geometry”? Deriving it from the other axioms of Euclid? If so, I think a number of these authors attempted no such thing. – Viktor Blasjo May 30 '18 at 20:47
• Grabiner, Judith V., Why did Lagrange “prove” the parallel postulate?, Am. Math. Mon. 116, No. 1, 3-18 (2009). ZBL1163.01009. (Also gives you a ready “parallel postulate” search link in Zentralblatt.) – Francois Ziegler May 31 '18 at 10:33
• János Bolyai's father, Farkas Bolyai, should be on the list. He famously wrote to his son:"Detest it as lewd intercourse, it can deprive you of all your leisure, your health, your rest, and the whole happiness of your life... Do not try the parallels in that way: I know that way all along. I have measured that bottomless night, and all the light and all the joy of my life went out there.". Kids never listen. – Conifold May 31 '18 at 21:11